baukuh, grontmij · renovation of hoogstraten klein ... · 3/8/2017 baukuh, grontmij · renovation...

3/8/2017 baukuh, Grontmij · Renovation of Hoogstraten Klein Seminarie · Divisare

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BAUKUH (/AUTHORS/888905702-BAUKUH), GRONTMIJ (/AUTHORS/49659-GRONTMIJ)RENOVATION OF HOOGSTRATEN KLEIN SEMINARIE

Ǜ STEFANO GRAZIANI

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Task The Seminar School is a complex institution made of several components combined into a single urban field.This system should grow according to a general strategy, capable of defining common goals as well asattentive to respect the different needs of the various parts of the complex. The transformation of the Seminar School needs to be understood not as an architectural task, but as a urbantask, defining a general strategy that could be implemented in stages, that could react to different possiblefuture scenarios and that could combine a plurality of needs and a multitude of populations inside a sharedfigure. As a consequence, our proposal tries to imagine a method of intervention to be developed throughdifferent actions, defining a clear (and clearly communicable) method of intervention aiming at the production ofa precise, unified urban scene as the result of an intense participation process. We propose to realize the minimum amount of transformations that are necessary to modify the organizationand the atmosphere of the Seminar School. We propose a clear and pragmatic design operating throughseveral different interventions contributing to a single strategy. As such, the various interventions canindividually adapt to changes happening during the process without endangering the general strategy.

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Urban strategy

Hoogstraten is a small city in the north of Flanders, entirely structured along its north-south main street, the

Vrijheid. Along this axis, several significant urban entities are aligned, including the towering St Catharina

church and the articulated complex of the Begijnhof. The Kleine Seminar might play an important role in the

overall structure of the city itself, just enhancing its already existing main features, primarily the extremely

generous courtyard and the English park. In order to reactivate these assets, the complex has to open up to the

city, accordingly to the needs for protection that any school should retain. This newfound openness would be

able to create a win-win situation for both the school and the city. The specific strategies that the project

applies in order to achieve such a result are subtle and respectful modifications to the thresholds of the

complex, as the redefinition of the socle of the Voorbouw toward the Vrijheid, the demolition of the existing bike

storage and the related expansion of the English park (as such becoming an asset of the city itself), the

redefinition of the main courtyard as a proper urban forum. The transformation of the Seminar School into an

explicitly urban element will be crucial in this respect, contributing to the creation of a diverse, multi-layered

urban landscape in which different elements contribute to the life of the city.





Forum The main asset of the Seminar School is its large courtyard. All facilities are accessible from the courtyard, yet,at the moment, this is simply a logistic feature of the complex. The courtyard gives access to all facilities but it is not the real centre of the complex. The main scope of our – extremely simple – proposal is to turn the logistic platform into an urban scene, usingall circulation paths converging on the courtyard as an opportunity for the production of urbanity. A fewarchitectural decisions are sufficient to turn the courtyard into a forum. Indeed it is possible to re-activate theold main gate as the principal pedestrian entrance, making it disabled-people-friendly through redefining thesocle of the Voorbouw. At the same time, the demolition of the existing bicycle stalls and the extension of theEnglish park creates the opportunity to reach the courtyard by bike or feet from the Vrijheid through an intensesequence: from the main street, biking through the educated nature of the park, passing by an enlarged galleryunder the Lensgebouw, finally reaching the forum in its middle section. The bikes storages can be relocated inthe space of the existing swimming pool and in a new facility close to the back entrance. By doing this, allmovements and actions, all events and gestures, all meetings and departures will happen in the courtyard,immediately activating its urban potential and turning it into a place of encounters, conversations, lies, loves,irritations, in short a urban space, a forum. The Seminar School will not be inhabited by new events, only theold ones will not be hidden anymore, the humble gestures of the everyday will be part of an explicitly urbanchoreography, inside of a clearly measured and formalized architectural frame. The potential for urbanity of the Seminar School is already there; the measures of the elongated courtyard areindeed quite promising (the courtyard is roughly 35 x 200 m, while the Forum of Pompeii, for instance, isroughly 35 x 235 m), our proposal simply exposes a potential that is already there.





Architecture In order to frame the courtyard as an explicitly urban stage, we propose to realize three portions of porches(one on the eastern side along the Voorgebouw, one on the northern side, west of the church and in front of theOstgebouw and one on the southern side, west of Lensgebouw), defining the borders of the large rectangle andproviding a clear background for the multitude of objects and events appearing on the field. The porch is asimple sequence of tiled green columns (inspired by the existing church pillars) supporting a metal roof.Accordingly, we propose to repave the forum with an homogenous material, to enhance the unity of its space: alayer of coloured nature concrete would perfectly suit the needs of both the playground and the sportfields. Thevery simple external frame encircling the open space allows the forum to be populated with a variety ofelements producing an articulated urban geography, to be determined by means of a participation process. Theforum continues to host the sports field at the western end plus possibly a stage, four trees, a large outdoortable including a fountain and a small chapel in front of the church, to be used as an everyday place forindividual worship. All these elements combined, and all the different rhythms associated with their uses bothcollective and cyclic and individual and unpredictable, contribute to the activation of a complex metropolitanenvironment. The urban complexity of the forum also suggests innovative uses, opening up the possibility tohost exceptional events open to all the students and also open to the citizens of Hoogstraten. A new, complexcalendar connecting everyday and exceptional moments will inhabit the Seminar School. The new interventions in the rest of the complex are extremely limited and always respectful of the existingassets. Along the Vrijheid a new socle defines a series of small squares where the students can wait before entering theschool; as such the existing facade is closer to the street while still being visually supported by a monumentalbase. The socle itself might act as a discrete but visible billboard for the school, sporting as an inscription the



name of the complex.

The English park is expanded towards the Vrijheid, through the demolition of the existing bike storages and the

redefinition of the border in visual continuity with the new base of the Voorbouw. As such the park will become

an asset not only for the school but even for the entire city of Hoogstraten to the extent that it might be

thinkable to open it to citizens during the day.

In the coming years, according to the availability of financial resources and to a scheme of shared priorities, the

entire complex might be repaved, making easily readable the clear separation of the different fluxes.

The system of entrances in the back of the complex has to be rationalized as well, making a clear distinction

between the pedestrian and bike entrance and the vehicular one.


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Energy The project proposes to calculate the energetic balance with respect to the entire complex. Adopting thisapproach, that balances more vulnerable and energy-consuming old parts of the complex with more efficientnew ones, it is possible to imagine relatively light interventions on the parts of the complex that need to bepreserved. This attention to the global energetic balance of the complex allows to evaluate the different needs of theprogram and the energetic requirements of the various building inside of a wider frame. This approach lets newpossibilities arise. For instance, it is possible to use different strategies of interventions related to the differentarchitectural quality of the existing buildings, for example as adding a new layer of exterior insulation only whenthe outer façade of a building allows it. For instance, in the case of the church, the counter-intuitive decision ofbuilding a new small chapel allows to separate everyday use from ceremonial use of the sacred spaces. Thesmall, new, low-consuming chapel allows not to waste energy heating the old, large, dispersive church, that willbe used only in particular dates of the year. The definition of a more attentive energetic balance does not turninto a desacralization of the sacred spaces and into a loss of religious identity for the Seminar School.




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Materials All the materials used in the renovation of the Seminar School are hard-wearing and easy to maintain. The species of plants have been chosen considering their maintenance. In any case, taking care of the greeneryshould be interpreted as a didactical moment, effectively involving the users of the new community centre in thecultivation of a shared landscape.



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PUBLISHED ON JUNE 08, 2015

LOCATION

BELGIUM - HOOGSTRATEN

DESIGNERS

BAUKUH (/AUTHORS/888905702-BAUKUH), GRONTMIJ (/AUTHORS/49659-GRONTMIJ)

PROJECT YEAR

2014

PROJECT FACTS

INFO

CLIENT DIM ANTWERPEN - HOOGSTATEN KLEIN SEMINARIEADDITIONAL NOTES 1ST PRIZE

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